TOWN OF ULSTER, N.Y. -- Dominic Intromasso got up early Friday to drive from Bloomingdale, N.J., to meet his niece in Schenectady.

He was desperate to pick up the large, plastic gas containers she bought him so he could keep his home generator going as the weekend approached.

On his way back home, he stopped at the QuickChek gas station just off Thruway Exit 19 in the town of Ulster to fill up his SUV and those valued five red jerry cans.

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"It's really horrible in Jersey," he said while waiting in line at the busy gas station on Washington Avenue. "The gas lines are about eight blocks long, and people are going crazy, cutting each other off, and there's fights and everything. It's real horrible."

Gas jugs hav2e been hard to find in New Jersey stores since Superstorm Sandy slammed the Garden State and the New York City area on Monday, Intromasso said, so he didn't mind making the trip north.

Intromasso, who lives near Wayne, N.J., less than 15 miles from midtown Manhattan, is among the 2 million people still without power in New Jersey.

And to make matters worse, an estimated 75 percent of the gas stations in the state are closed, either because they've run out of fuel or they have no power, according to the New Jersey Gasoline, Convenience, Automotive Association.

That's causing a lot of city people to head to places like the Hudson Valley or Pennsylvania in search of gasoline.

Rockland and Orange counties have been among the locations feeling the squeeze as motorists from the metropolitan area and Jew Jersey search frantically for fuel, causing long lines and equally long waits.

And slowly but surely, they're also making their way farther north, to Ulster and Dutchess counties.

"We can't get a gas can or nothing, and everybody's trying to keep their generators running," Intromasso said.

"Now people are running out of gas in their cars. They're rationing gas. They're only giving you like $20 worth. It's really bad," he said.

The higher demand locally has prompted some officials to issue statements about the situation.

"We encourage residents to be patient over the next few days as supplies begin to return to normal," said Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro.

"People should conduct themselves with calmness and civility as we remind ourselves that the challenges our area has felt in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy are not as difficult ... compared to our neighbors in southern New York and in New Jersey," Molinaro said.

LaGrange resident Alison Raymo said several gas stations along U.S. Route 9 and county Route 376 in the Dutchess County towns of Wappinger and Poughkeepsie had closed by midday Friday because they were out of gas. Those that were open, she said, had long lines of vehicles waiting to fuel up.

"The cars were lined up for gas at the 7-11 (on U.S. Route 9 in Wappinger) at lunch time," Raymo said.

There also were reports on Twitter of gas stations in Hyde Park running out of fuel.

To alleviate the problem, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed an executive order to allow distributors and transporters to bring gasoline, diesel and kerosene into New York without having to meet the usual registration requirements.

But that doesn't mean people in the Mid-Hudson region aren't worried.

Rhinebeck resident Raffila Capoto was filling up at the Hess Express station on Broadway in Kingston early Friday afternoon because of the perceived hysteria.

"A lot of people are coming up. It's scary, let's put it this way," he said. "I hear too many stories, so I might as well do the right thing."